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Jim Carroll

Music, Life and everything else

How about EMI artists buy their own back catalogues?

Do any On the Record readers want to throw some cash into a FundIt campaign to buy some EMI bits and pieces? Like, I don’t want to buy the whole label – no interest in Coldplay or The Beatles for …

Jim Carroll

jimcarroll

Fri, Oct 12, 2012, 09:38

Do any On the Record readers want to throw some cash into a FundIt campaign to buy some EMI bits and pieces? Like, I don’t want to buy the whole label – no interest in Coldplay or The Beatles for a start – but I wouldn’t mind owning Kraftwerk, Blur, Blue Note and David Bowie’s back-catalogues and there will be a new, decent Kylie album along sometime soon. Or, better still, we could hook her up with David Guetta and some of the lads from the Swedish House Mafia (both EMI acts) and see what happens. Hey, there’s an A&R idea.

Kylie reported to be “not happy” after first A&R meeting with OTR Records

You can bet that there’s a lot of fantasy record label games being played at the moment. When there are assets to be purchased, there are always consortiums who will be willing to kick the tyres.

Last weekend, news about American Idol and Spice Girls’ swengali Simon Fuller joining forces with Island Records’ founder Chris Blackwell to make a bid for EMI made the music business headlines.

Of course, no-one is asking the artists for their opinion on all of this. They did, after all, sign contracts with EMI in the first place and get large wads of cash for their troubles. But artists are sensitive beasts and they must surely worry about their lot, especially acts who signed smart pre-360 deal contracts. Let’s hope they have boss managers and solicitors to break some legs and do some shouting when the going gets tough.

Or, and here’s an idea, why don’t the artists buy out their own contracts and back-catalogue? There’s probably an app – or at least a FundIt campaign – for that.

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